Impeachment of the

by.

to the Tower, and soon afterwards impeached for high treason.

Whilst the house of commons was deeply enLord Trea- gaged in the prosecution of this business, of surer Dan- which lord Danby himself, contrary to the king's inclination, had promoted a parliamentary investigation, a discovery was made which put a sudden termination to the credit and authority of that nobleman. During the pendency of the negotiations in the year 1677, the lord treasurer was privy to, and in some measure concerned in, the scandalous concessions made by the king to the prejudice of the allies, and the consequent equivalents in money received from the French court. It is true that nobleman always expressed his dislike of these proceedings, which were chiefly carried on by the intervention of Montague the English ambassador, a man of address, whose principles were never found at variance with his interest. This man aspired to the office of secretary of state, which sir William Coventry was willing to resign in his favour for the sum of ten thousand pounds. Montague applied in very humble and adulatory terms to the lord treasurer, to prevail upon the king to ratify this corrupt pecuniary bargain. But finding that sir William Temple, by the recommendation of lord Danby, was nominated to that office, he left Paris with great precipitation, and, to the confusion and

astonishment of the minister, exhibited a charge of corruption against him in the house of com mons, although he had himself been far more deeply concerned in those very transacions upon which the accusation was grounded. The house of commons, inflamed with this intelligence, immediately voted an impeachment for high treason against the treasurer. The peers however refused to commit Danby upon a charge of treason so weakly founded. The commons persisted in their demand; and, great contests being likely to arise upon this point, the king, who plainly perceived that this house of commons, formerly so submissive and loyal, was no longer to bei either cajoled or overawed, thought proper first to prorogue and soon after to dissolve the parliament, which had now sat almost eighteen years. The new parliament, which met in March following, 1679, soon displayed a spirit of jealousy New Par and opposition to the court, at least equal to their predecessors. The impeachment of Danby was revived; but the king had previously granted him a pardon under the great seal, which he affixed to it with his own hands. But the commons affirmed, that no pardon could be pleaded in bar of impeachment: and Danby, who had absconded, but who chose to make his appearance. rather than to incur the penalties of a bill of attainder, was immediately committed to the

1679.

liament.

T

Bill of Exclusion,

Tower. The house proceeded with equal violence in the prosecution of the pretended popish plot, the existence of which still depended upon the testimony of the infamous Oates and his vile colleagues and accomplices. The vote of the former parliament was renewed; and colonel Sackville was expelled the house, for presuming somewhat indiscreetly to call in question its reality. Even the courts of justice upon this occasion became the mere instruments of parliamentary and popular vengeance; nor did the nation awaken from its delirium till the scaffold had streamed with the blood of various persons of high distinction, and great numbers of inferior rank, both clergy and laity, had fallen a sacrifice to this egregious imposture; the passions of amazement and horror making that evidence appear credible, which would at any other time have been rejected as an insult to common

sense...

But though it must be acknowledged that nothing was discovered, after the most indefatigable investigation of this affair, which could possibly be construed into a plot or conspiracy, by any mind not distempered with the rage of. faction, yet the parliament as well as the nation: had sufficient grounds to apprehend, that in the event of the king's decease the most vigorous attempts would be used by his successor to re-esta

blish the Romish religion in these realms, with its natural, and in this case its inseparable concomitant, arbitrary power. It was therefore with the highest degree of public approbation that the house of commons came to an unanimous vote, "That the duke of York's being a papist, and the hopes of his succeeding to the crown, had given the highest countenance to the present designs of the papists against the king and the protestant religion." This was regarded, and it was unquestionably intended, as the prelude to a bill for excluding him from the throne. Charles, who held his brother's understanding in just contempt, and who had little affection to his person, was however fully determined, and he adhered to his determination with a degree of firmness of which he was thought wholly incapable, never to give his assent to a measure which appeared to him in the highest degree violent and unjust. Previous to the introduction of this famous bill, therefore, he proposed to the parliament, in a very gracious and conciliatory speech, a plan of limitations which would have effectually secured the religion and liberties of the nation; and at the same time declared, that if any thing farther could be devised by the wisdom of parliament, as an additional satisfaction, without defeating the right of succession, he was ready to consent to it. Upon the ground of that fundamental

VOL. I.

Habeas

Corpus Act passed.

maxim of true policy, which directs us to aim not at that which is best in itself, but at the best of those alternatives which are practicable, limitation and not exclusion ought to have been the object of parliament; though it must be confessed that the king had given so many proofs of the flexibility of his temper in the course of his reign, and of his extreme reluctance to risque a total rupture with parliament, that there was great reason to believe he might ultimately be induced to concur in the rigorous and popular plan of exclusion.

Possessed with these ideas, the house of commons rejected with disdain the compromise offered by the king, and without any delay passed the bill of exclusion by a large majority of votes ; though by a clause of it the duke was declared guilty of high treason, if after the decease of the king he appeared within the limits of the British dominions. In the vain hope of mollifying the untoward disposition of the commons, the king at this period passed the memorable habeascorpus act; though the duke of York affirmed to him, that with such a law in being no government could subsist. Finding however that no impression was to be made by any act of grace or condescension, he took a sudden resolution to dissolve the parliament; and writs were at the same time issued for a new parliament, which